Rhetoric of Fiction

Tu/Th, 2pm-3:30pm; Location: Barrows 155

This class is an introduction to the advanced study of written narrative fiction as a rhetorical device.  Through close reading and interpretation of various short stories and two novels (Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous), we will explore the functions and effects of written narrative in terms of its possible audiences, and examine the operation of its component parts, such as plot, character and setting, narration, point of view, irony and so forth.

* This course satisfies the Image and Narrative Concentration